Are you looking at a piece of sheet music that has a sixteenth- or thirty-second-note arpeggio or scale wondering how you will be able to play it fast enough? Or maybe trying to add your own arpeggios and/or scales into a song from the hymnal but struggling to keep it clean? Don't worry! With patience and a little extra work, it can be done! In this article, I want to share with you some tips that I hope you find helpful in learning to play these difficult embellishments quickly, clean, and with confidence.
Practice One Hand at a Time
The first thing I want to mention is that you may find it easiest to practice a difficult arpeggio or scale just one hand at a time, disregarding your other hand. This will let you focus in on the hardest part, get it clean, and engrain it into your muscle memory before you add the other hand in. This will ease a lot of frustration during your practice time as you won't have to concentrate on two different things at the same time, especially if the rhythms don't line up very easily.
Once you have mastered the scale or arpeggio on the one hand, you can then try adding the other hand back in (if you can already play the other hand well). Now, you might feel like it seems there is a bit of a setback with this method since it might be a bit difficult at first to add the second hand back in, but simply take your time and slow down if necessary. Once you work everything back up to speed, I think you will find that though the process may seem counterintuitive, using this method will save you a lot of time and frustration during your initial practice.
Relax
The next thing you want to do before you begin practicing is make sure your hand, wrist, and arm are relaxed and your fingers are curved. This is very important for a smooth arpeggio or scale. Not only can the technique you use mean the difference between playing arpeggios and scales clean or sloppy; it can also mean the difference between playing them with ease or with difficulty. Let me explain.
When your hand, wrist, and arm are tensed, they become rigid and no longer move freely. For either an arpeggio or a scale, this can easily result in a choppy sound because your hand is abruptly moving from one hand position to the next. For example, in a C major arpeggio going up the keyboard, this might look and sound like: C, E, G, *jump*, C, E, G, *jump*, etc. Rather than sounding smooth, this rigid technique can cause your arpeggio to sound almost like the clopping of a running horse, with breaks between each set of three or four notes as you move your hand up or down the keyboard. Instead, you want to relax your arm and hand so that your wrist can move and pivot freely, allowing it to smoothly glide from one hand position to the next.
Continuing with our example, as you are playing the first three notes of a C major arpeggio going up the keyboard (C, E, G, ...), you want to go ahead and start allowing your hand and wrist to move toward the next hand position so that your first finger (thumb) can begin crossing under to play the next C. It's alright if your wrist comes up a bit as you move your hand and cross your thumb. This means you're staying relaxed! Going down the keyboard, you will want to do the same thing, but instead of crossing your thumb under your hand, you will cross usually your third or fourth finger over your hand as you begin to smoothly change hand positions. The same goes for scales. Make sure you use the proper fingering for the scale you're playing and begin pivoting/crossing over early to the next hand position! The result will be a smooth, flowing sound.
You also want to make sure that you are playing the keys lightly and letting your hand almost float over the keys. This allows you to move with speed and agility over the keyboard. Even in a fortissimo section, arpeggios and scales do not need to be pounded out to sound good. Being conscious about playing lightly will help you keep in mind to stay relaxed as well.
Not only does your technique effect the sound of your playing, but it can also make your muscles stiff or sore after playing. It's always a great idea to keep your body as relaxed as possible while practicing and performing!
Use the Metronome
My third tip is to use the metronome. Using the metronome will help you ensure that every note in your arpeggio or scale is evenly spaced and that you're playing all the correct notes. This will make your playing sound crystal clear and clean! If you have any trouble with keeping your notes even (like if you're playing sixteenth notes of thirty-second notes), you can always change the metronome speed so that it ticks once per note that you play rather than once per quarter note.
When practicing with the metronome, you will want to start out slow, almost too slow, and play the scale or arpeggio over until there are no mistakes any time you play it. If you do make a mistake, don't continue to the end as this confirms to your muscles and brain that the mistake is actually correct. You want to start over and maybe even slow down some if necessary so that you don't learn the mistake. Once you can play the scale or arpeggio easily and without mistakes, you can bring the metronome speed up just a little bit and repeat. You will raise the metronome speed so slowly that you may not even notice the difference until you can play the arpeggio or scale effortlessly at your desired speed!
This may seem like a long and tedious process, but it is worth it in the end since you will play more clean, effortless, and confident than if you rush the process and take shortcuts.
Practice Daily
Especially if you want to add arpeggios and scales regularly into your playing from the hymnal, you may find it very helpful to practice a handful of each daily. If you already play scales before you begin practicing, you can add a few arpeggios each day to this pre-practice time. Make sure to switch things up and play different arpeggios and scales each day! For instance, you could play some major arpeggios one day, minor arpeggios the next, etc., and the same with scales. Doing this will help you have all of them memorized, mastered, and ready on hand whenever you decide you would like to throw one into your playing.
Conclusion
If you have read some of our other articles, you may have noticed that these points include most of our 5 Tips for Better Piano Practice. This is a good example of how you can use these tips practically during your practice time and how they can help you play better at church or at home. Posture and technique are also good things to keep in mind as it can directly or indirectly effect your ability to play well.
I hope this has been helpful to you! If you have any questions about this article, feel free to contact us here. If you are interested in learning more about this and similar topics, you can also find our 5 Tips for Better Piano Practice and How to Begin Arranging Piano Hymns booklets here. Thank you for reading!